RECORD REVIEWS

Bon Jovi

Album: “This House Is Not for Sale”

Grade: A

This ain’t your mama’s Bon Jovi.

The most famous head of hair in rock ‘n’ roll is short and gray these days, and its owner no longer writes songs about runaways, blood red nails, cowboys or New Jersey mating rituals.

But more than 30 years after taking the world by storm, Bon Jovi still is making hit records: title track “This House Is Not for Sale” is as good a song as Jon Bon Jovi has ever written. As he grows older, he mixes a bold defiance (of age, injustice and negativity in general) with a more mature appreciation for love, life and hope.

The new album is a kissing cousin of 2005’s “Have a Nice Day,” from the clanging guitar intro to the in-your-face defiance and resolve Bon Jovi shows as he claims his legacy and fiercely defends it.

“Living with the Ghost” is about moving on from a turbulent past; it also could reference how Bon Jovi has refused to let the absence of founding guitarist Richie Sambora end the band or dim its output. His replacement, Phil X, drenches this disc in U2-influenced riffs that add a new element to the classic Bon Jovi sound.

“Knockout” is a fist-pumping, ground-pounding anthem to aggression, built around the bass line from Billy Idol’s “White Wedding.” “Rollercoaster” is the kind of song with a chorus so catchy you’ll swear you’ve known it for years the first time you hear it.

— Wayne Parry, Associated Press

Dee Snider

Album: “We Are the Ones”

Grade: B

With Twisted Sister in his rearview mirror after 40 years of glam metal mayhem, vocalist Dee Snider has unleashed a torrent of creative fury on his new solo album, “We Are the Ones.”

While at times he felt constrained to a certain late ’70s/early ’80s sound with Twisted Sister, Snider lets his musical freak flag fly here on a collection of adrenaline-soaked rockers, defiant anthems and some unexpected curveballs, including a hip-hop beat on “Superhero.”

But the biggest surprise of all is a stripped-down piano ballad version of Twisted Sister’s signature song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

Snider, who has caught the Broadway bug badly, and recently released an album of show tune covers, redoes his biggest hit as he would at the climax of a play, just an emotive vocalist and a single piano.

The title track is pure, straight-ahead hard rock, served up hot and fast. “Close to You” channels Snider’s longtime admiration for Alice Cooper, portraying a creepy stalker in a chillingly crafted track.

“Crazy for Nothing” has the catchy chorus and the hard-hitting guitars to make it a hit single (were it not for the F-bombs Snider drops.)

He does a steaming cover of Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole,” and closes with the defiant “So What,” replete with repeated references to raising middle fingers high in the air and not caring what others think, which has been Snider’s guiding philosophy for decades.

— Wayne Parry, Associated Press